What Is Inbound Marketing? Degrees & Career Opportunities

In recent decades, digital marketing has begun to evolve and naturally divide into two main types: outbound and inbound marketing.

Both types of marketing are used to interact with a business's target audience, but how they achieve this goal is what separates them.

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a term that was coined by employees of SAAS company Hubspot. Inbound marketing strategy relies heavily on using content marketing in various forms to give potential customers the ability to find your company's products or services using search engines or other discovery methods.

The chief methodology of inbound marketing is that a person who finds your company organically during the early stages of their buyer's journey will be more interested in converting than someone who is just exposed to disruptive ads.

Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing

The difference between inbound and outbound marketing is ultimately how information is delivered to potential customers. Inbound marketing uses search engine optimization (SEO) to guide a person to valuable content for the stage of their customer's journey that they are on.

An example of an inbound strategy would be writing articles about installing a concrete patio if you are a concrete service. New customers searching for how to install a patio will find quality content on the search engine results page (SERP) and can go to it. Once they arrive on a landing page, they can interact with the piece of content that caught their attention, including reading a call to action (CTA) from the company about how it's easier to have professionals install a patio along with contact information.

An outbound strategy for this same concrete service would be to buy ad space on a local television station. Although this could connect with potential customers actively looking for a new patio, this strategy also will reach people who have no interest in hiring your company and will ignore the ad.

Both styles of marketing campaigns have advantages and companies that effectively use both can see higher success than a company that only uses one.

What Does an Inbound Marketer Do?

An inbound marketer is often responsible for multiple roles within a campaign. Many inbound marketers fall into the specialization of content creation. Content is a broad term that can cover anything from the copy found in an email marketing campaign to social media marketing.

Beyond creating and implementing content, many inbound marketers also monitor various metrics related to the performance of their content.

What Skills Are Required for an Inbound Marketer?

Becoming an inbound marketer requires a few specific skills including:

• understanding SEO strategy
• real-time decision-making
• knowing the best practices of keyword research
• being able to write or edit relevant content like whitepapers, infographics, and social media posts with CTAs to help convert potential customers
• knowing how to track and analyze various metrics using a full suite of marketing tools
• coordinate efforts with sales team members to maximize marketing efforts
• craft buyer personas to help target content to appropriate audiences

Best Degrees for Inbound Marketing

If you're looking to work in a marketing agency or join an in-house marketing team, you'll probably need a degree in digital marketing or a related field. Because writing marketing content is such an essential part of many inbound marketing campaigns, degrees in English or creative writing often translate to inbound marketing very well.

Although higher positions at agencies or executive marketing roles (such as chief marketing officer) might require a master's level degree (MBA in marketing), most inbound marketers will only need a bachelor's degree to qualify for employment.

Marketing Degree Programs in the U.S.

Multiple schools offer marketing degree programs both in-person and online.

Southern New Hampshire University

Although many people know about Southern New Hampshire University's diverse online degree offerings, they also have many on-campus offerings. Marketing students will have both online and on-campus degree options to pursue.

Florida International University

Florida International University offers digital marketing degrees at both undergraduate and graduate levels in in-person and online courses, which allows students from across the country to earn an accredited marketing degree through FIU.

Arizona State University

Another school that offers online and on-campus marketing degrees is Arizona State University. ASU has a very respected marketing program, which can help set you up for employment after graduation.

Western Governors University

Because Western Governors University only offers its marketing degree program online, they are a great choice for working professionals looking to earn a new degree or busy students who want the flexibility of an online degree.

Purdue Global

Purdue Global is the online campus of Purdue University, which allows students to earn a marketing degree from a respected university like Purdue in an online format.

Career Opportunities for Inbound Marketing

Earning a degree in marketing is the best way to prepare yourself for a career in inbound marketing. Some of the careers that will be available to you include the ones below.

Digital Marketing Specialist

A digital marketing specialist works in multiple different aspects of marketing, using data to inform strategy. A digital marketing specialist can work with content as well as lead-generation strategies

Content Marketing Specialist

A content marketing specialist has the goal of writing and editing quality content to convey necessary information to customers. Content can be anything from a webinar to a social media post. Content marketing specialists need to understand how to create content that is very specific to a campaign's goal and targeted to different audiences.

SEO Specialist

Search engine optimization is a segment of digital marketing that uses keyword research and internal linking to appear high on SERPs. This is usually done through written content, but SEO has grown to include images and infographics as search engines expand their features.